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Still in Development: A Film Culture in Dubai

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — When the heiress Paris Hilton traveled here in June and July to audition female friends for her show “My New BFF,” her producers had access to state-of-the-art studios and a government eager to import a touch of Hollywood glamour to the Middle East.

But to adhere to the region’s Islamic norms, many of the ingredients in reality TV were taboo: there would be no drinking, no cursing, no dramatic displays of affection. The producers thought about filming a scene at a water park, but passed on the option of dressing the contestants in religiously appropriate swimwear.

Dubai, its rival Abu Dhabi and other Persian Gulf cities face enormous hurdles as they try to diversify their economies by fostering creativity and becoming entertainment capitals. Chief among those hurdles: they operate under Islamic law. Hollywood does not. So far, the oil-rich countries have proved more able to pay for fancy media productions and to build expensive film facilities than to actually lure production to the Middle East, as economic efforts run up against their traditional values and censorship.

This month Dubai rejected the producers of the “Sex and the City” sequel, who wanted to set part of the film there. The government cited moral reasons for the decision. “Body of Lies,” a thriller about fighting terrorists, was turned down in 2007. For now, some of the region’s specially constructed studio lots lie mostly vacant, visitors say.

Michael Hirschorn, an executive producer of the Hilton series, left Dubai impressed by what he called a “media community truly eager to embrace the international marketplace.” But that community, he said, has been hampered “by cultural norms and standards that make a lot of international production difficult to impossible to pull off.”

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Syriana, a 2005 film with Matt Damon, left, and Alexander Siddig, is one of only two Western movies to be partly filmed in the United Arab Emirates.Credit
Glen Wilson/Warner Brothers Pictures

Some of the other hurdles are logistical. For instance, local requirements for full-time work visas mean that the country lacks a robust freelance market to support productions. Jamal al-Sharif, the executive director of Dubai Studio City, which was founded in 2005 to stimulate the regional film industry, acknowledged that “a vital ingredient for building the film industry is access to talent.”

Despite the drawbacks, the region’s ambitions to house world-class centers for creation and production cannot be written off, partly because of the sheer sums proponents are willing to spend. Last fall, Imagenation, a subsidiary of the government-run Abu Dhabi Media Company, invested $250 million each with Participant Media and Hyde Park Entertainment and $100 million with National Geographic Entertainment to finance feature films. Work on the first phase of Abu Dhabi’s own media production zone, one geared toward television, is under way.

Abu Dhabi’s most expensive joint venture to date is a two-year-old one with Warner Brothers that was said to be worth $1 billion. This month, “Shorts,” the first Warner Brothers film financed partly by Abu Dhabi’s feature film arm, opened in theaters in the United States. It earned a disappointing $6.6 million in its opening weekend.

So far, “Shorts” is the only film to come from the joint venture: the partners have not announced any more films, feeding speculation that the authorities in Abu Dhabi are rethinking their Hollywood ambitions. But Edward Borgerding, the chief executive of Imagenation, said in an interview that he was sure “we’ll make another movie with Warner Brothers next year, and the year after that.”

In a statement that cited the “world economic climate,” Warner Brothers was more circumspect. It said it was working with Imagenation to ensure that the companies’ business objectives were mutually aligned.

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Producers had problems when Paris Hilton went to Dubai to audition women for My New BFF.Credit
Mosab Omar/Reuters

National Geographic is making more progress with Abu Dhabi. Adam Leipzig, the president of its entertainment division, said the partners plan to make two or three films a year for the next five years. Their first acquisition, “Amreeka,” is scheduled for release in New York and Los Angeles on Sept. 4, and their first co-production, “The Way Back,” finished filming two months ago. The partnership expects to make more acquisitions at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

The investments by Abu Dhabi are part of a wider push to establish the emirate as a cultural center. Like other Middle Eastern cities, the emirate has invested money and personnel in creating the infrastructure for media production. One year ago it announced a content creation center, which it dubbed Twofour54, and in September its first editing centers and studios will open on the outskirts of the city, said Christopher O’Hearn, the general manager of DMA Media, a consultancy that helped create the hub.

Holding a notepad while meeting in a hotel lobby in Abu Dhabi, Mr. O’Hearn sketched out a grander vision for a production center, now in the early planning stages. “It’ll be the sort of facility that a producer from London, L.A. or Sydney can walk into and say, ‘This is very familiar,’ ” he said.

But to carry out the production plans, Mr. O’Hearn and others say, the region needs a skilled pool of creative workers.

In an interview, Mr. Borgerding said that a skilled labor force “doesn’t exist here in sufficient numbers yet to put the productions together without flying in a lot of people and putting them in expensive hotels.”

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Shorts, a Warner Brothers film financed partly by Abu Dhabis feature film arm, opened this month in the United States.Credit
Warner brothers Pictures

A new training academy is working to change that.

Back in Dubai, Tim Smythe, the chief executive of Filmworks, said the tax-free emirates also lack “incentive packages or rebates” for producers, so the only advantages are the locations.

Dubai Studio City’s facilities have been used in 26 feature films, mostly from gulf countries and Bollywood. To date, “Syriana” and “The Kingdom” are the only Western films to be partly shot in the emirates.

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While expressing confidence in Dubai Studio City’s objectives, Mr. Sharif said, “We do realize it may take a while for us to really make a mark at the global level.”

In rejecting the request from the producers of the “Sex and the City” sequel this summer, Mr. Sharif said, the authorities took into account “the multicultural fabric of the society and its perceptions.”

According to a government official familiar with the script, its plot lines — with the women coming to Dubai, spending money lavishly and cavorting — were perceived to reinforce negative stereotypes about the region.

Even more than the staff issues, enduring issues of censorship may be the most stubborn hurdle for the gulf region — even if, as Mr. Hirschorn jokingly said, “our government censor turned out to be a really nice guy.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Still in Development: A Film Culture in Dubai. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe